Born: January 3, 1830, Old Machar Parish, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Died: July 11, 1895, Taunton, Somerset, England.
Buried: All Saints churchyard, Trull, Somerset, England.
Alexander was the son of physician Alexander Ewing and Barbara McCombie.
He studied law at Marischal College in Aberdeen. He had little inclination for that profession, though, and was allowed to abandon it and go to Heidelberg to study German and music.
During the Crimean War in 1855, Ewing joined the army. Afterward, he went to South Australia, then China, where he took part in the campaigns of 1860 and 1862.
He returned to England in 1866. The next year, he married Juliana Horatia Gatty, author of Jackanapes; second daughter of Alfred Gatty, vicar of Ecclesfield and sub-dean of York Cathedral; and sister of Alfred Scott-Gatty.
After several more years of foreign service, Ewing returned to England in 1883, and retired from the army in 1889.
Ewing’s true love was always music. A member of the Harmonic Choir in Aberdeen, he brought his newly written tune Ewing to practice one night, and that choir was the first to ever sing it.
If you know where to get a good photo of Ewing (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),